14. Arthur Weasley

Hermione and Ginny arrived the next morning at Professor McGonagall's cottage. She welcomed them and insisted upon a cup of tea and a biscuit. They agreed, and set about a conversation. They talked for nearly an hour before they decided to say why they'd really come - and McGonagall explained that she and the Minister had been talking recently about whether it would be wise to check everybody who Voldemort didn't target, just in case they had some connection. "Oh, yes. I think it would be a necessary precaution before Hogwarts reopens, but the Minister seems to think everything will be okay. He's almost as nuts as Scrimgeour. Anyway... I need to talk to you about Potter and Weasley. Don't worry, they are fine." (as they exchanged worried looks) "There has been some kind of hidden agent we didn't know about, but I received an owl yesterday about it and they said they had found the agent, and Professor Snape, I believe. Everything was the Carrows all along, apparently."

"Not exactly, Professor." Ginny said, gingerly, as if still scared of correcting her old teacher.

"Who, then?"

"Xenophilius Lovegood." (she paused as McGonagall gasped) "We found him guilty of being a Death Eater. We were about to arrest him, but he sadly died."

"My, my! I never for a moment thought... Well! This changes my outlook on things! I will have to talk to the Minister about this!"

"He already knows."

"No, I mean... oh, alright, I'll tell you. We arrested his daughter, Luna, on suspicion of Dark Magical activity. Of course, she was found not guilty, but that's not the point. We think Mr Lovegood is not Luna's real father and that she was artificially created by Lord Voldemort to act as a servant. We detected Dark Magic when we installed Probity Probes in their house a few years ago, and since then, the DM reading has been off the scale. Now, when we took Luna in for questioning, Xenophilius went... mad. He turned rogue and went on a active attack against the ministry, we had to give Luna back, but I think by then he had already turned to Voldemort. We suspect, that not only was Luna his servant, but part of him was used to create Luna, so..." (she paused for a sip of tea) "If part of him turned against him, then he would be unable to exist in human form. The reason he died was because Luna turned against him... It all makes perfect sense..." Hermione and Ginny got the impression she was talking more to herself than to them, so they put down their tea, thanked her and quietly left. Once outside, they turned on the spot, and with a loud crack appeared on Ginny's front doorstep.

The following morning, a very well pruned owl appeared through the kitchen window and landed perfectly on the table. Seeing that the letter was addressed to him, Harry pulled off the letter and read. He got so far and his eyes widened with shock. He read aloud "P.S, look out for Arthur Weasley." and all the others looked confunded, apart from Hermione, who looked quite amused. "Just what I thought all along." She said with a smile. "He's not really dead, your dad. Just hiding. Come on, let's go look." And so they all went out and down to the river and with a "BOO!", out jumped Arthur from behind a bush. At home, with a nice cup of tea, Arthur explained how the Carrows had tied him to a river, but dropped his wand by mistake. He used a bubble-head charm to breath and cut the rope when he knew they had gone far enough away. He then stayed at various inns and returned once every few days, to give the impression he was dead. He was in correspondence with McGonagall all the time and was so proud to see his family nailing shut Voldemort's coffin.